China Colors Artist's Memories Of Trip

December 15, 1991|By Bill Lazarus Special To The Sentinel

DAYTONA BEACH — The colors of China still zigzag through Stephen Marsh's tired mind: black for the virtually unlighted capital city of Beijing when he arrived at night; gold for the beautiful artwork in the National Art Museum; red-yellow flames for the endless piles of burning leaves.

Troubling images add to the inner turmoil: women so bent with toil they turn sideways to look up while selling vegetables; the 12-year-old cellist who awed visiting Americans; the small, shadowy studios where young artists work; the awesome Great Wall, where the souls of those buried in its ancient bricks seem to reach out to visitors; Tiananmen Square, where students defied their government's rule.

Marsh, an art instructor at Daytona Beach Community College, just returned from a two-week trip to China.

He has a month to turn in written observations of his trip, another two months after that to outline sketches for an art book and traveling display.

''I'll make it,'' said Marsh, who returned home at 4 a.m. Dec. 2 on a non-stop flight and taught his first class at 8 a.m.

It is hard to argue with a man who raised $5,000 to pay for the trip, then walked throughout China despite military-related injuries that require him to use a cane.

Marsh, 49, was one a few artists and art educators invited to visit China through People to People, a private, cultural exchange organization. The Seattle group usually sends scientists, but this fall, for the first time in its 30-year history, organized a visit by artists.

Twenty-one artists, art historians and a lone art critic from throughout the nation met Nov. 16 in Seattle for the trip. Marsh was Florida's only representative.

Money was donated by friends, students and community residents who read about his plans. The last few dollars were received two days before the plane left.

Marsh will repay donors through a series of public lectures featuring photographs taken during the trip.

Churches, county and school board officials, and university professors have asked him to speak.

Marsh said he will need about $2,000 to develop 60 rolls of film and produce slides for his talks.

The lectures are a small portion of the idea exchange the trip is expected to generate.

Among other plans:

- Participants are preparing a book to be published by People to People in 1992.

- They are preparing an art show of works by the artists on the trip. It is expected to tour the country in 1992.

- Artwork of Chinese students and artists will be displayed in this country, and American artists and students will ship samples of their work to China.

- Marsh is mailing art textbooks to his counterparts in Beijing universities. He said they have lost some of their ancient skills, such as the ability to make artistic paper, and were eager to recover those techniques.

- Marsh will write a guide to China for disabled visitors. The guide will serve as the basis for discussion when People to People sends rehabilitation experts to China next year.

- Several of the artists, including Marsh, have been invited to put on an art show next year at the National Museum in Beijing. Marsh said he will have to raise money again to go.

Meanwhile, he is trying to organize his thoughts.

There wouldn't be many free moments this day. Students were clustered around him inside a DBCC art studio. Several had borrowed art books he had brought from China. Others wanted to talk about his cowboy hat, which attracted non-stop ''howdies'' from the curious Chinese.

''I see something gray with neon to represent the flashes of color,'' Marsh said. ''I just haven't had the time to sit down and do it.''